An infographic and social media strategy to raise awareness of CPS Arts programs

Chicago Public Schools Department of Arts Education

Social Media, Content Strategy

Challenge

The newly created Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Department of Arts Education was looking for innovative ways to raise awareness about their Arts Education Plan. The plan was developed to ensure and communicate how every public school student receives a high quality arts education. CPS Arts Education understood that communicating about the plan through social media was important, but felt overwhelmed and needed some guidance and training to get started on establishing effective social media channels.

The Approach

Birk.Creative developed an infographic that presented the results of the CPS Arts Education Plan in an engaging and easy-to-digest visual format. We then used that infographic as the inspiration for a social media campaign to build public awareness about the Arts Education Plan. The campaign was executed across Facebook (facebook.com/chicagopublicschools), Twitter (twitter.com/CPS_Arts), Instagram (Instagram.com/CPS_Arts) and Pinterest (Pinterest.com/cpsarts) and encompassed a series of engaging graphics and a #cpsarts hashtag used across social media platforms to foster conversation around the importance of arts education and around CPS Arts programs. Birk.Creative additionally provided social media training to CPS Department of Arts Education staff so that they were empowered to execute the social media campaign, measure the results of the campaign, and effectively manage their social media channels in house.

The Results

The CPS Department of Arts Education has now established four social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram) and attracted over a thousand followers. With Birk.Creative’s help, CPS Arts secured retweets from the National Endowment for the Arts, VH1 and other national and local influencers. Their social media program will serve as a model for other CPS departments. The Department of Arts Education is also now well positioned to launch a new campaign, the “Be Creative: The Campaign for Creative Schools” campaign to raise $38 million dollars to ensure arts education reaches “Every Student in Every Grade in Every School”.